Employment opportunity: Quantitative Fisheries Ecologist (permanent full-time position)

Raincoast Conservation Foundation is looking to bring a quantitative ecologist, biologist, biostatistician or fisheries analyst onto our salmon team to advance the fisheries work we undertake in support of wild salmon recovery, coastal ecosystems and wildlife beneficiaries of salmon.

If you are interested and meet the selection criteria, please respond to jobs(at)raincoast.org with your cover letter and resume, which should include at least two names of referees. This position will be open until it is filled, but will not be filled before April 30, 2022.

Position overview 

The successful individual will join Raincoast’s Wild Salmon team to lead our fisheries analysis work. This position requires a relevant graduate degree. The position also requires a motivated, self-starter who is excited to advance place-based salmon conservation through independent analyses of fisheries and salmon data as part of a co-developed work plan that plays to the individual’s strengths. The policy landscape for this work includes engagement with government including First Nation, NGOs, academia, salmon stakeholders and the public within an overarching context that recognizes First Nation priority access to salmon fisheries. The position will report to, and work with, the Wild Salmon Program Director. The wild salmon team consists of science, policy and communication specialists who collaboratively work to deliver Raincoast’s mandate: Investigate, Inform and Inspire. 

About Raincoast Conservation Foundation

Led by a team of conservationists and scientists, Raincoast’s projects and programs are rooted in rigorous, peer-reviewed research and science, and informed by community and cultural engagement. Our on-the-ground presence, coupled with primary science, is distinct among conservation groups and has given us a deep-rooted understanding of this vast coastline, its processes, and its people. Through public engagement, programs and outreach, we work to inspire and empower the next generation of conservation leaders.

Duties 

Inform and evaluate salmon fisheries management decisions within the context of:

• achieving persistence of BC salmon Conservation Units,
• including ecosystems and wildlife as beneficiaries of salmon that are affected by salmon management decisions,
• a long term goal to rebuild resilient wild salmon populations at the CU, watershed and landscape scale.

Technical skills and abilities 

• Strong knowledge of Pacific salmon life histories and their ecological role in coastal ecosystems,
• ability to design and execute desktop studies and analyses,
• comfort with Stock-Recruitment relationships, MSY and single-species (as well as ecosystem-based) harvest models,
• comfort with generalized, mixed-effects, linear, non-linear, deterministic, stochastic, individual-based, population-based, Bayesian modelling, etc.,
• comfort with statistical coding and analysis (in programs like R, C++, and Python), ecological modelling and other advanced statistical procedures for undertaking and reviewing data analyses,
• ability to identify, lead or assist with studies that improve stock assessment information and inform or advance ecosystem and/or place-based salmon management.

Experience and knowledge

The successful candidate would have knowledge of the following:

• Stock assessment and management techniques that use GSI, mass-marking, CWT and other tagging, test fisheries, creel surveys, escapement surveys, run reconstructions, recruitment, productivity, survival, and mortality determinations,
• Effects and implications of fisheries management techniques such as non-retention, mark-selective fishing, like slot limits, catch and release, 
• Harvest related effects such as by-catch, Fisheries Related Incidental Mortality, recruitment overfishing, age and longevity overfishing, ecosystem overfishing, selective pressures on population structure and evolutionary traits, and implications for diversity and abundance,
• Effects of human activities such as climate change, hatcheries, and habitat loss (etc.) on   recruitment, productivity, survival and abundance. 

Communication skills and abilities

• Good communication skills (writing, listening, verbal, public speaking),
• Comfort advancing science-based concepts in public domains,
• Ability to comprehend and synthesize technical scientific material for personal and public consumption in verbal and written formats,
• Ability to develop and deliver presentations to both scientific and popular audiences,
• Ability to write and review manuscripts for peer-review publications, 
• Support development of popular messages and concepts for public outreach.

Important professional interests

• Willingness to engage with diverse views on harvest, fishing and fisheries management,
• Desire to engage in technical, management and stakeholder processes,
• Desire for cross-sector relationship building,
• Identification and advancement of collaborative work with First Nations, NGOs, and government,
• Desire to build strong working relationships with First Nations leaders and technical staff,
• Desire to build strong working relationships with academic partners and NGOs,
• An appreciation for other knowledge systems such as Indigenous Knowledge (i.e. Two-Eyed Seeing).

Salary and details

This position is full time (40 hrs/week). In addition to joining a dynamic and dedicated team at Raincoast, benefits include extended health coverage and flexible working opportunities. 

Job Type: Full time, permanent, and 3 years minimum.
Anticipated hours:  40 hours per week.
Salary range: $80,000 – $90,000 based on the applicant’s skills and experience.
Location: Be able to work remotely, but with reliable internet access to maintain routine communication with a well-integrated online network of internal and external colleagues for meetings, workshops, conferences and dialogues, etc. Be willing to travel within coastal BC to meetings, workshops, conferences and field related excursions.

How to apply

Please send your resume and cover letter demonstrating your experience as it relates to the job requirements to jobs (at) raincoast.org. Please include contact information for at least two referees.

Email applications with “Quantitative Ecologist” in the subject line. Attach a single PDF file for your one-page cover letter and your resume – name it your first and last name (e.g. Mark Smith.pdf).

The cover letter should express why you want this position and identify how you are qualified.

We thank all applicants, but only those selected for interviews will be contacted.

Raincoast welcomes applications from all interested and qualified candidates. Our organization is the product of diverse visions and perspectives and we welcome the unique contributions that you can bring. Raincoast is committed to fostering and maintaining a workplace culture that is inclusive and does not tolerate or accept discrimination or harassment.